McCain Adviser: McCain ‘Helped Create’ The Blackberry
McCain Adviser: McCain ‘Helped Create’ The Blackberry
Speaking to reporters today, McCain campaign adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin claimed that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is responsible for the “miracle” of PDAs. Politico reports:
“He did this,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters this morning, holding up his BlackBerry. “Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee so you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did.”
Although he doesn’t e-mail, McCain told the New York Times in July that he does “use the Blackberry.” Campaign aide Mark Salter added, “He uses a BlackBerry, just ours.”
According to the AP, Holtz-Eakin also pointed today to McCain’s service leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee, which “put him at the intersection of a number of economic interests, including the telecommunications industry.” Similarly, McCain yesterday told scienceblogs.com:
Under my guiding hand, Congress developed a wireless spectrum policy that spurred the rapid rise of mobile phones and Wi-Fi technology that enables Americans to surf the web while sitting at a coffee shop, airport lounge, or public park.
However, what McCain failed to accomplish has left a bigger impression on tech experts than anything that McCain actually did. “The thing that stands out for his entire tenure is that he has never had a priority, and has never had, to my knowledge, any accomplishment of any kind at all,” former FCC chairman Reed Hundt told Salon last month. When McCain took over his second tenure of Senate Commerce Committee, the United States ranked fourth in broadband penetration. In 2007, two years after he had given up that position, the United States had dropped to 15th in the world.
Note to the McCain campaign: The Blackberry was invented in Canada.
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Didn’t the media crucify Gore for something similar?
Think they’ll do the same for McCain?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:07 amROFLMAO! but how? he is a pow with injuries that keep him from knowing how to type an email… must be the hand of god.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:07 amhe and cindy were the inspiration
for the novel “love story” by eric segal.
*
and he said “thanks but no thanks”
to the federal government for the
bridge to nowhere.
#
he’s done so much.
@
September 16th, 2008 at 11:08 amUM, the company that owns the Blackberry is from Canada…
September 16th, 2008 at 11:10 amMcCain ‘Helped Create’ The Blackberry
– - Two tin cups attached by a string doesn’t count, Johnny Luddite.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:10 amYes. And I help paint the Sistine Chapel.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:12 amoops. helped.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:12 amSo if you drive a tanker could you take credit for inventing petrol?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:12 amYesterday, McCain also told scienceblogs.com, “Under my guiding hand, Congress developed a wireless spectrum policy that spurred the rapid rise of mobile phones and Wi-Fi technology that enables Americans to surf the web while sitting at a coffee shop, airport lounge, or public park.”
– - Geeze, and THIS from the crowd that mocked Al Gore for “inventing the internet,” which Gore actually DID help foster into existence.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:12 amand just think, McPutz also discovered penicillin(after repeated VD at Subic Bay), created the electric light bulb, invented the camera, and cured polio.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:13 amSo, now he’s Johnny McMarconi.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:13 amThe outright lies and distortions come thick and fast from the McCain camp.
Why?
Remember, these are “messages” to his new base (the crazy fundamentalist/Bush supporters). His new base is not bothered by logic, reason, or even facts. All they want are talking points they can tell each other in order to keep the faith.
Don’t bother coming up with facts to refute such crazy talk, McCain’s base doesn’t really care (remember, most of these people believe the Earth is only 6 thousand years old).
September 16th, 2008 at 11:13 amUncle Ho Says:
and just think, McPutz also discovered penicillin(after repeated VD at Subic Bay), created the electric light bulb, invented the camera, and cured polio.
I heard that he developed nuclear energy and invented ice cream.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:16 am“you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did.”
HOW????
September 16th, 2008 at 11:16 amWell, since he doesn’t use the e-mail, I guess there wouldn’t be a lost email scandal in a McCain White House, huh…
[/sarcasm]
Yeah, how many people actually would oppose such a bill, anyway…
September 16th, 2008 at 11:18 amYa Ya that’s the ticket! Big John was just helping a good Canadian company. After all Big John helped found Canada.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:18 amjohn mccain wrote the bible.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:21 amI heard that he developed nuclear energy and invented ice cream.
This could very well be true. Like nuclear plants and ice cream, McNumbNuts is prone to “melt-downs” I hear.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:21 amThe company that invented the Blackberry is RIM (Research in Motion) a Canadian Co.. That’s the facts…does McShame think Canadians are stupid enough not to say anything or not to take pride in what our people invented.
The only thing more stupid then McCains advisor…is the poeple that will vote for him. Makes you go hmmm….
September 16th, 2008 at 11:22 amUsing the Gore Standard we now have McCain claiming to have invented the Blackberry.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:23 amWow, and here I thought he was just another lying dumbph*uck republican.
PEACE
September 16th, 2008 at 11:24 amYou would think that after his own party blasted Gore for claiming to have “invented the Internet” (a claim Gore never made), McCain would steer clear from making any claim to inventing or creating anything. Nope.
Just like skewering Obama repeatedly for his “lack of experience” would drive a reasonable person to choose somebody with a great deal of political experience for a running mate. Nope.
This has gone from amusing to insulting.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:27 amIssues… we don’t need no stinking issues!
September 16th, 2008 at 11:28 amspencers mom Says:
Wow, and here I thought he was just another lying dumbph*uck republican.
He still is that…AND MORE!!!
September 16th, 2008 at 11:28 amFan of Man Says
September 16th, 2008 at 11:21 am
john mccain wrote the bible.
__________________________________________________________
Careful, there are kool-aid drinkers out there who will believe it.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:28 amMcCain invented telecommunications?! Or just cell phones and WiFi?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:30 amMcCain: Older than dirt, but remarkably similar in taste & smell.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:32 amDidn’t rove just say mccain couldn’t use the newfangled inventions because he couldn’t type due to war injuries when he was a POW?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:33 amPatriotActor Says:
Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years
McCain invented telecommunications?! Or just cell phones and WiFi?
Tin cans and string!
September 16th, 2008 at 11:33 amMcStain wrote the book entitled “All you wanted to know about Sleazy NeoCON WarMongers Elitists (But were afraid to ask)”
September 16th, 2008 at 11:34 amFundamentalists believe the Earth is less than 6,000 yrs old.
If this is the case, McCain DID actually write the Bible, create the Earth and create Palin in his spare time.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:37 amDid he just say that innovation comes through the Commerce Committee? A GOVERNMENT entity?
Well, that’s not very conservative. Isn’t government supposed to stay out of it and let The Free Market® do all that innovating stuff?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:38 amTaking credit for another failure, McIIIrd?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:39 amI noticed yesterday how the Reich wing talkers started saying McCain couldn’t use a computer because of his injuries as a POW.
I didn’t buy it for a minute because it begs the questions:
1] Has he never heard of a laptop?
2] Can’t he put a desk top keyboard in his lap?
3] How come some totally cripple, from the neck down, still can use a computer?
If McPOW can’t move his arms enough to use a computer, who, then, wipes his butt?
¶ AIO
September 16th, 2008 at 11:40 amDid I mention that I helped create the Googles, Yahoos and Intranet?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:40 amMcCain invented the Blackberry… but he doesn’t know why or what is his utility.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:40 amYes, that’s right. I was a programmer during the time all those things came about, so I can claim responsibility for helping invent all of them.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:41 amThese people are so stupid it really is starting to cause me physical pain.
The fact is we are not the great innovators with wireless telecommuications. The Japanese have been a generation or two ahead of us technologically for decades now. I was stationed in Japan in from 1996 to 2000 and there was just no comparison between what the average guy had on the street over there and what was still considered cutting edge over here.
Or maybe McCain was serving in the Japanese Diet, too. That’s probably the next bald faced lie coming down the pike.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:43 am“When I was a POW, we didn’t have newfangled communication devices, my friends…”
September 16th, 2008 at 11:45 amYo! McIIIrd! I’ve got a shitload of blackberries in my back yard that you can come pick. That’s as close as you’ll get to creating blackberries, despite the ridiculous claims by your campaign.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:45 amalphainfinityomega Says:
I noticed yesterday how the Reich wing talkers started saying McCain couldn’t use a computer because of his injuries as a POW.
3] How come some totally cripple, from the neck down, still can use a computer?
¶ AIO
September 16th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Maybe McCant needs some lessons from prof. Hawking.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:46 amHere’s just one example of what I’m talking about:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4306834/
McCain-san bakayaro!
September 16th, 2008 at 11:49 amI am trying to think of a nice way to say this, but cannot seem to find one: the man is an idiot.
“Congress developed a wireless spectrum policy that spurred the rapid rise… Wi-Fi technology that enables Americans to surf the web while sitting at a coffee shop, airport lounge, or public park.”
Nice try, Senator. 802.11x WiFi in any flavor is UNLICENSED spectrum, over which neither the Congress nor the FCC have any control or influence. Whatsoever. Except to mandate non-interference with regulated spectrum.
Geez: this guy is a troglodyte. I mean, seriously. Even if you presume that his advisor was referring to the infrastructure required to support the RIM Blackberry—and not the device itself which simply was held up to reinforce the idea of what it represented as a holistic technology platform—it’s a relatively stupid claim to make. His role with the FCC has been one largely of interference at the behest of special interest contributors and their lobbyist representatives, and not of one demanding change in the public good. Um, net neutrality, anyone?
And that broadband penetration figure? It was just announced that we’ve slipped from 15th place to 30th place. Way to go, Senator: rushing headlong into the past, one might say. Back to the future. Or, something.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:49 amOk, I figured it out:
See, as a young man, McCain probably watched a lot a Heddy Lamarr movies. And as everyone knows, Lamarr’s invention of frequency-hopped spread spectrum communication became the basis for modern CDMA and WiFi devices.
Therefore, by the McCain/Palin rule of osmotic policy experience, McCain invented wireless telephony.
It’s simple, libs!!!
September 16th, 2008 at 11:52 amIt’s all part of that “composite character” so important to Rick Davis, since issues aren’t important to voters.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:52 amI thought he had trouble with email and the intertubes?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:54 amOld John put together the Keating Five to fund the development of the blackberry.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:54 amDidn’t rove just say mccain couldn’t use the newfangled inventions because he couldn’t type due to war injuries when he was a POW?
He does, however, seem to be able to put his hands together and fiddle with his wedding band while standing on stage behind Failin’ Palin and staring at her arse. Seems to me that he should be able to tap out emails on his Blackberry, too.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:54 amalphainfinityomega Says:
I noticed yesterday how the Reich wing talkers started saying McCain couldn’t use a computer because of his injuries as a POW.
I didn’t buy it for a minute because it begs the questions:
1] Has he never heard of a laptop?
2] Can’t he put a desk top keyboard in his lap?
3] How come some totally cripple, from the neck down, still can use a computer?
If McPOW can’t move his arms enough to use a computer, who, then, wipes his butt?
¶ AIO
I guess when McStain becomes as physically capable as Steven Hawking, we can all look forward to J. Sidney’s tech savvy.
PEACE
September 16th, 2008 at 11:56 amSo, RaptureRoddy, why does your candidate lie to the American Public? Why isn’t he touting his plans for changing America?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:57 amMaybe McCain can solve the iphone 3G problem…Yeah sure.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:57 amThere is a definite contradiction with underlying ideology here. The right wing position is that private entrepreneurs are responsible for all the dynamism, innovation and creativity in the economy. They argue onerous taxes and regulations stifle these founts of economic growth. Now McBane’s advisor is arguing the opposite, that the government is the source.
Wow!
September 16th, 2008 at 11:57 amMcCain helped create the Blackberry!?!
He helped God create a fruit?
September 16th, 2008 at 11:58 amMichael Lafferty, nice post. Love your tech explain…
September 16th, 2008 at 11:58 amMcStain helped create the Blackberry.
Palin wants him to change the name to the “Samboberry”
PEACE
September 16th, 2008 at 12:00 pmSounds more like a bone-headed staffer made a ‘misstatement’ that needed to be spun as a ‘joke.’
Idiotic.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:00 pmoh i get it.
it was a joke.
>
LOL.
#
thank you.
$
September 16th, 2008 at 12:02 pmspencer’s mom. OUCH.. Nice.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:03 pmWill the same media, that made pretty much helped sink Gore in 2000, help sink McCain now? I doubt it, since the MSM owners all subscribe to the GOP way of thinking.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:05 pmHeck, they’ll probably have folks thinking it was Obama that made the comment before the week is out.
I’m jsut sayin’….
Maybe what Holtz-Eakin actually meant to say was that McDeathWarmedOver helped create more crackbabies? I mean, with the republican economic policies that are the cornerstone of McSame’s campaign, it’s beyond question that there have been more crackbabies born the last 7-odd years…
September 16th, 2008 at 12:08 pmMcCain’s campaign is based entirely on LIES. Republicans took Al Gore’s comments about helping to craft and enact legislation that created the Internet and twisted them to sound like he was taking credit for creating the Internet completely on his own. Now McCain’s campaign is directly claiming that McCain created the Blackberry – and somehow managed to do it in Canada instead of the USA.
Sheesh…. why doesn’t the GOP just lay down, curl up in a fetal position, admit that they’re out of ideas, and let the grown-ups take back control of our government?
September 16th, 2008 at 12:08 pmYou know, I’ve been involved in broadcasting, telecommunications or one or another related high technology fields for almost 40 years. And, the fundamental lack of understanding of the ‘issues’ at the level of Senator McCain—generally—is simply breathtaking. It’s no wonder the claims of the campaign staff and their advisers make so little sense.
In more relaxed and less sober moments, I suppose, I worry about the whacky disciples of McCain-Palin. If announcement of the impending rapture is delivered via a Blackberry Enterprise Server, these people are literally toast. There won’t be time to don the white robes and ascend, unless you’re on the distribution list. And the flock largely won’t be. So sad…
September 16th, 2008 at 12:09 pmOh, and someone needs to remind the McCain campaign that using a Blackberry normally involves using email. If McCain is actually using his Blackberry, then he does use email. I wonder where those emails are kept… bet there are some gems in there showing McCain to be the rude hothead we all know him to be.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:09 pmHere’s a great impersonation of McCain –> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLYGj7xTOPM&feature=user
September 16th, 2008 at 12:09 pmThis guy has several “McCain video blogs” up on YouTube.
Hilarious . . . and hard to tell from the real thing.
RUCerious Says:
Yes, that’s right. I was a programmer during the time all those things came about, so I can claim responsibility for helping invent all of them.
I helped set up one of the first ISPs and commercial wi-fi networks in Texas back in the 90s, and was a sysadmin for their server system. Only businesses could afford the wi-fi back then. Does that mean I helped invent it also? hahahaha
Someone needs to hang this around McCain’s neck like they did with the “Gore invented the internet” talking point.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:10 pmBut seriously folks, McCain **REALLY DID** help invent fire and the wheel.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:12 pmMcCain invented the Barbie Doll and he wanted some improvements so he created Sarah Palin….
September 16th, 2008 at 12:13 pm“In the beginning, POW was sleepy and took a nap.”
“And on the second day POW fed multitudes of lobbiests, banksters and crooksters and gave them high paying jobs within his Kingdom.
“And on the third day POW soiled his diaper, and took a long nap.”
“And on the fifth day POW lifted his arms to his waist and wiped out all taxes for the wealthy and it was good”
“And on the sixth day POW threw a temper tantrum, pushed the button and scorched 2/3’s of the earth, making ash of millions of innocent lives, while refusing to follow the scourge Bin Laden and his plague of followers to the fiery gates of hell.”
“And on the seventh day POW woken early from his nap, angrily calls his queen, who sat to the right of him on the throne a pig with lipstick, a trollop and a c**t before being put out to pasture permanently, the queen takes over and the end of time begins.”
~ The Book Of Palin
September 16th, 2008 at 12:14 pm68, Tom, thanks! That guy is nailing McCan’t.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:17 pmLies, damned lies, and BIG LIES. Don’t it make my Blackberries Blue?
September 16th, 2008 at 12:17 pmand Cindy has a recipe for blackberry muffins she invented
September 16th, 2008 at 12:17 pmRepukes love their liars, they are like gods to them.
McGoingtodiesoon tells a big lie.
Response from the Repuke Nutballs – We worship the ground you piss on.
Fck these neanderturds.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:18 pmUnka fester! damn! I need a new keyboard, coughed up my water. LOL!
September 16th, 2008 at 12:23 pmMcAncient also invented the wheel.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:23 pmAnd McCon brought us telecom immunity
September 16th, 2008 at 12:27 pmSweet! It’s gone mainstream:
“Adviser says McCain helped create the BlackBerry
31 minutes ago
MIAMI (AP) — Move over, Al Gore. You may lay claim to the Internet, but John McCain helped create the BlackBerry.
At least that’s the contention of a top McCain policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Waving his BlackBerry personal digital assistant and citing McCain’s work as a senator, he told reporters Tuesday, “You’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create.”
A McCain aide later dismissed the remark as “a boneheaded joke by a staffer.”
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g1MSY3Bgt7YC5XHmxAdt9VkOlvhwD937TFHO0
Yeah, just some staffer. No one important. Just one of principal advisers—and lobbyists—formulating strategy and policy for the campaign, and speaking on its behalf.
MEMO to Senator McCain: you campaign is swinging out of control.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:32 pmThis is beyond LOL, beyond ROTFLOL, beyond ROTFLMAO –
This is the guy whose staff was attacking Obama’s ads pointing out how out of touch McCain is in being unable to use the internet. McCain’s staffers attacked Obama with the defense that McCain’s fingers are incapable of using a keyboard since he was a POW — so shame on you Obama they said.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:54 pmNOW today, we hear that McCain uses a blackberry — if he can’t use a keyboard, how can he use the tiny keypad of a blackberry.
Is there nothing they don’t lie about?
KKKarl Rove just told us that it is unfair to mention that McSame is computer illiterate bacause he was a POW. The blackberry is a computer so this cannot be true.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:56 pmMcCain can’t use a Blackberry. Somebody pull up a page and he reads it. I’d pay to watch him try to Google something.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:08 pmMarie:
Everything outlandish lie the repugs accused Sen. Obama of mcchimpy is doing 1000 worse.
Those permanent “jazz hand” mcchimpy is always showing are scary as hell. he
September 16th, 2008 at 1:09 pmLushInterior Says:
NO, NO, NO……TP! This is a joke set up by the McSame loons and just as they predicted, YOU BIT. The people at Fox are laughing their a$$ off because they were in on it as well………GOD!
September 16th, 2008 at 1:11 pm““““““““““““““““““““““““““`
You could be right! This could just be another distraction from the issues that the McCain campaign does not want to talk about. Lets see how much media coverage this gets compared to the economy, etc.
How many veterans have lost limbs and learn how to drive a car? McCain can’t use a computer? You can make a computer work by blinking your eyes. At least 7 houses but he can’t afford modern technology. That’s why he has to use the Blackberries of his campaign workers. What a joke.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:11 pmSure LushInterior, it’s the same kind of joke like yesterday when he said the economy is fundamentally sound right? And the same kind of joke where he said he didn’t care if we were in Iraq 100 years. So basically McCain and his stooges can say anything no matter how stupid and all they have to do is say they were just kidding and you sheeple believe him. Heck, you guys believe the lie in the first place what’s the difference.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:14 pmLushInterior, Lux Interior of the Cramps is probably not happy you bastardized his name.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:24 pmWhat’s the point of these stories? Its not working and McCain is still ahead. We need to attack him on ecomics, not crap like this. Think Progress, refocus on economic issues, that’s how you will win. These stupid atacks don’t do it.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:38 pmThose permanent “jazz hands” mcchimpy is always showing are scary as hell. he’s is just stiff from being old.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:44 pmOk tide get a turnin.
I never knew mcchimpy to be anything but a liar and freeloader.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:49 pmLook what he did to his first wife.
“McCain Adviser: McCain ‘Helped Create’ The Blackberry”
lmao! Thanks for the laugh for the day, TP. I will not comment any further. The title alone did it for me.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:55 pmTracy__5 Says:
Dogging old people isn’t a good thing
We’re talking about McCain here. Why would you submit that post, unless you are admitting McCain is one of the old people…
BTW, care to comment on the McCain camp’s outrageous Blackberry claim?
September 16th, 2008 at 3:41 pmTracy__5 Says:
It’s about as outrageous as the right wing’s claim that Gore claimed that he created the internet.
Fixed.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:29 pmMcCain’s plan for the economy, a Blackberry in every pot.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:00 pm.
Next they will claim Johnny McInvented sliced bread.
.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:24 amJust like the cold war when everyone who didn’t agree with the U.S. was either a communist or a communist sympathizer. toki This poor crazy guy spent half a decade being tortured because a bunch of stupid politicians araç sorgulama were sure the NVA was in bed with the Russians (minimal help) and/or the Chinese (ancient enemy of the vietnamese). ssk sorgulama You would think he would have learned from others’ mistakes. Guess not. Republicans need an enemy. key ödemeleri This century it apparently will be all Muslims, health all of whom must be alQaeda operatives.
March 1st, 2009 at 1:33 pm